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Amazon Web Services plans to open a new office in Argentina over the coming months to boost support and hone in on opportunities in the local market, Marco Grilanda, Latin America regional manager of AWS told BNamericas.

AWS has had a data center in Brazil since 2011 through which it serves the region with cloud computing, storage, database and business applications. Apart from Brazil, the company has offices in Mexico, and since this year in Colombia and Chile.

"The Argentine office will be complete with sales, presales and support, bringing us closer to our clients," Grilanda said.

According to the executive, local sales offices are also used for training purposes for local partners such as, in the case of Chile, Spanish ERP integrator Seidor and US web hosting company Inmotion.

Grilanda said that clients throughout the region include governments and private sector companies like Chilean bank BCI, which uses AWS for digital banking services, and retail giant Cencosud which is leveraging big data for real-time analytics in its supermarkets.

"This is mission critical information, which is what warrants the local support," Grilanda said.

According to the executive, the constant conversation with clients serves AWS to help reduce costs by supporting clients to pay only for the storage they need at the time.

"Startups can be very successful or fail very quickly. If they fail, they just switch off the cloud services they were using and there is no investment left on the table."

E-commerce discount days like Black Friday and Cyber Monday are becoming very popular throughout the region and require rapid scalability. During Argentina's recent Black Friday, local e-commerce platform Btech saw 26mn visits over three days.

In Peru, AWS has helped one of the largest banks, Banco de Crédito launch new applications in 14 weeks, when previously it took 12 weeks just to activate a new server.

WHAT ARE CLIENTS LOOKING FOR?

Grilanda said that AWS has 90 families of services and so far this year has launched 928 new services, based on client feedback. Clients are mostly looking for cloud-based databases, like those offered by Oracle and Microsoft, but cheaper.

AWS is also signing memorandums of understanding with some governments including Chile, Honduras and Argentina to push the use of cloud services in the public sector for storing data and files securely using virtual resources.

For startups, AWS offers Activate, a program designed to provide low cost, easy-to-use cloud computing resources to scale and grow their businesses.

According to Grilanda, multi-media and entertainment, big data analytics and ERPs in the cloud are among the main drivers for the cloud storage business in the region.

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BNamericas delivers on-the-ground insight and trusted business intelligence to companies and investors active in and entering Latin America. Identifying opportunities early on and connecting clients with decision-makers across 12 industries, BNamericas is the edge your company needs in Latin America.

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Methodology & Procedures

Definitions

Projects covered include state-owned and private projects in the Infrastructure, Electric Power, Oil & Gas (excluding upstream), Water and Waste, and Mining sectors.

Where applicable, a project is considered as such until the end of construction and ramp-up to full capacity (with the exception of mining projects, where the date of commissioning signifies the end of the project). Projects must have a:

Data

For state-owned projects, initial information about the start date and estimates for completion and investment are taken from original signed contracts, along with addendums and annexes.

If original contracts cannot be obtained, information is taken from public documents, presentations, news articles from BNamericas archives, and external sources.

In cases where contracts are subject to approval by legislators, the start date is the date of the law or legislative approval.

In the case of private projects, information is taken from public sources, such as stock exchange filings, annual reports, company presentations, third party research and press releases.

In judging the timing of investment decisions for private projects, great care was taken to differentiate between large projects receiving environmental approval and proceeding directly to construction, and smaller projects where the investment decision hinges on securing financing.

Best care is taken to ensure that recorded data is correct at the time of entry and that each entry is backed with a relevant source.

The greatest care possible was taken to ensure consistency of information in order make a like-for-like comparison in project costs. Insofar as the figures rely on disclosure by the organization or company responsible, the figures can be considered to be conservative in nature.

No attempt was made to adjust figures for inflation during the course of research or for consideration of the time value of money.

Validation

In the case of state-owned projects, validation is carried out where possible with either a member of the consortium, EPC contractor, a relevant state agency or advisors to either party.

Currency

Projects costs are measured in US dollars. Where project costs are measured in a local currency, amounts are converted to US dollars at the date of the relevant announcement, signature or report.

Severity of deviation from original estimates

The severity of deviation from original estimates is defined according to set criteria.

Timing

Status

Condition

Ahead of time

95% of original estimate or below (measured in months)

On time

95% to 105% of original estimate

Minor changes

105% to 120% of original estimate

Medium changes

120% to 160% of original estimate

Major changes

Over 160% of original estimate

Budget

Status

Condition

Ahead of budget

95% of original budget estimate or below

To budget

95% to 105% of original budget estimate

Minor changes

105% to 120% of original budget estimate

Medium changes

120% to 140% of original budget estimate

Major changes

Over 140% of original budget estimate

Changes in Scope

Changes in scope beyond the start date are not accounted for.

Language definitions

Where guidance is non-specific as to dates for completion, the following is used. Project to be completed by 2018 = December 31, 2017 Project to be completed in 2018 = December 31, 2018